Coach: Youth team's 'racist' jerseys referenced surnames

Friday

Jan 12, 2018 at 11:08 AMJan 12, 2018 at 11:36 AM

CINCINNATI (AP) — The coach of a teenage basketball team dismissed from a Cincinnati recreational league for wearing jerseys with racist names has questioned how the league handled the situation and says the monikers were variations of his players’ surnames.

The team suggestively nicknamed the "Wet Dream Team" wore jerseys with labels that included "Knee Grow."

The Cincinnati Premier Youth Basketball League dismissed the team from suburban Kings Mills after an opponent raised concerns during the fourth week of games.

Coach Walt Gill said in emails to the league that no one previously complained, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported .

"I really don’t feel that this was handled correctly," Gill wrote in an email to a league spokesman Ben Goodyear. Gill requested a partial refund, saying he didn’t understand why he got no chance to rectify the situation.

Goodyear refused to accept Gill’s explanation for the jersey names in his email response.

"I just could not believe that any adult would want to argue or try to justify this behavior," Goodyear said.